Variety is the stuff of life for Luke Corry. Oregon 'chilled him out' but living near the beach has its benefits

(OMED: This is an "everyman" kind of story.  Subtract the superb grades in the final two years of highschool, and slightly alter a few other details, and this could have been written about me in the spring of 1959.  I had less idea of what I wanted to do than Luke.  We can all thank our lucky stars that we live in America, where a slow economy means only 94% of the people have jobs.  Nowhere else on Earth is there such breadth of possibility. With his attitude, if he does not fall into bad company or develop careless habits, he will find his way.)

   Music, literature, history, politics: for18-year-old Luke Corry of Arch Cape, this is the stuff of life. A senior at Seaside High School, Luke writes, plays guitar and bass, and says, after two years living here, he has adjusted well to life on the coast.
   In the spring of 2001, following his sophomore year of high school, Luke and his family (parents Mike and Ruth and siblings Josh, Megan and Katie) moved to the Arch Cape area from Orofino, Idaho. A small town about  “50 miles from everywhere,” Orofino mainly differs from the Oregon coast in that Idaho on the whole is more conservative, Luke observed.

   “Oregon kind of chilled me out a bit,” he said, and in more ways then one. “Mostly I was just freezing the first year I was here.” 

   In moving to the coast, Luke has also been able to try new things that he couldn’t in Idaho, such as a recent first-time surfing outing. He admits that his swimming skills aren’t the best, but that didn’t prevent him from standing on the board and feeling the surfing rush.
   “It made me wish I grew up near the ocean,” he said.
   One interest that Luke carried over from Idaho to Oregon was music.
   Although he did not seriously start learning the guitar until four years ago, directly or indirectly, music has always been a part of Luke’s life. His father, owner of Michael’s Music, is a musician, and Luke grew up listening to his father play. Luke’s older brother, Josh, is a drummer.

   Having fellow musicians in the family has given Luke an opportunity to play as well as listen to their music. Mike, Josh and Luke have performed as an ensemble at bluegrass festivals.  Luke and Josh also play together in both formal and informal settings.
   “Pretty much whenever I’ve played, it’s been with him,” said Luke, who has used his guitar and bass skills to perform in a punk band in Idaho.
   Luke is a songwriter as well as a performer. He notes he has seen his writings evolve with the type of music he listens to. Currently, he is in a “bluegrass phase.”
   In addition to growing up in a house with musicians, Luke credits some of his knowledge about bridges, choruses and other structural elements of songs to listening as a child to “great singer-songwriters” like the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

   “I think that helped my ear a lot,” said Luke, who now spends most of his time listening to indie rock, music that takes its influence from a variety of genres, including singer-songwriters from the ‘60s and ‘70s.
   “I’m sure I’ll be playing music for the rest of my life,” he said.
   Music led Luke to a book which inspired another fascination: reading and writing. The title of a punk song intrigued him, and Luke wanted to find out more about Owen Meany, who was mentioned in the song’s title.
   He found “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving.

   The novel, in which the title character believes himself a religious martyr, opened the then 15-year-old’s eyes to literature and made him want to read more and become a better writer.
   “It brought to light a lot of things I was thinking about,” said Luke. The book discussed religion, politics and hypocrisy in a way which wet his appetite for learning about and creating the written word.
    “I wanted to be able to learn and to write well. I’ve never done badly in school, but as far as applying myself...” he trailed off. Exposure to good writing served as motivation and in his two years at SHS, Luke has maintained a 4.0 grade point average.
   He lists “Crime and Punishment,” which he read in an SHS english class, as one of a number of his favorite books.

   Luke said his favorite author was equally difficult to choose.

    “If I had to pick one, it would probably be C.S. Lewis,” he said, citing Lewis’ rational approach to religion as appealing.  In addition to developing a love for reading, “Owen Meany” also inspired Luke with a desire to write.
    “I like being able to say exactly what I mean,” said Luke. “That probably appeals to me the most. A lot of it is a way for me to get out things that I think about all the time.”
   As well as his personal writings, which consist mainly of essays (and “not so much fiction”), Luke is a columnist for SHS’s newspaper “The Larus,” where he writes about current events and music. After he graduates this June, Luke is looking forward to spending the summer with friends before he leaves to study English or journalism at the University of Oregon in the fall.

   What happens after college remains a mystery.

   “I always hoped I’d be rich before I had to make any decisions, but that’s probably not going to happen,” he said. Barring winning the lottery or other riches, Luke aspires to write for a magazine or publish a novel. Wherever his life takes him, Luke’s hope is that he will be able to use his writing and musical  abilities to express himself and share his voice.

© 2003 Cannon Beach Gazette  Text and photo reproduced by permission